One day before thousands of parents, students and teachers head to Albany in support of more charter schools, a City Council committee held a hearing that portrayed charters as the enemy of other public schools.

Councilman Daniel Dromm (D-Queens), chairman of the Education Committee, issued a bizarre warning that the city wouldn’t be able to afford more charters if the state approved Gov. Cuomo’s proposal to raise the statewide charter cap from 460 to 560.

“Raising the cap will create an undue financial hardship for the city because of this new requirement for providing free space to charter schools,” said Dromm, a close ally of the city teachers union.

Charter supporters say they expect 9,000 people from 160 schools to be in Albany on Wednesday to lobby state lawmakers to raise the cap and deliver more funding to charters.
Teachers unions planned a competing rally to oppose Cuomo’s education reforms.